Value of sea cucumbers rising

Australia's sea cucumber fisheries could be worth a lot more than earlier thought.

A study of trepang (sea cucumber) export values, shows the prices of some species have risen tenfold over the last decade.

Report author Steve Purcell, from Southern Cross University, says the increased value is because of dwindling stocks around the world, coupled with massive demand from China.

In its dried form, some species are now selling in Chinese markets for up to US$2,950 a kilogram.

Mr Purcell told Radio National's Bush Telegraph program that the high prices were the main factor behind the overfishing of some species.

"The (trepang) species being fished by poor fishers in low-income countries, they tend to be the places where sea cucumbers are now fairly heavily depleted and some species are at risk of being exterminated from local areas," he said.

Australia has fisheries off the coast of Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

One of the Territory's newest operations is a joint venture project on Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

The local Aminjarrinja Enterprises Aboriginal Corporation, in partnership with Tasmanian Seafoods, harvested its first lot of trepang from Groote waters last year.

Chief executive of the corporation, Keith Hansen, says the project is completely sustainable.

"Tasmanian Seafoods in Darwin are breeding the young juveniles and bring them over here," he said.

"So not only are we harvesting, we're replacing the stock immediately."

Mr Hansen says all of the trepang from Groote Eylandt are currently being sold into the Chinese market.

"They go from here, to Darwin, down to Melbourne where they're dehydrated, and sold in a brick form to China."

He says the industry is a good one for the region because it's sustainable, increasingly profitable and 'the people who live here are saltwater people, they live with the sea and they've had an affinity with this product for many, many years'.